Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most recognized artists in the world. He is known as much for his turbulent life as he is for his art. He had a great naive enthusiasm for life, mankind and his work.

After a short lived experience as an art dealer and teacher, he became a lay preacher in a Belgian coal mining region. It was there that he began to draw in 1880.

After deciding to dedicate his life to art, he studied in Brussels, The Hague, Antwerp and finally in 1886, Paris, where he met Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Gauguin and members of the original Impressionist group. These meetings intensely changed and lightened his palette, and he discovered his love of color.

This rejection helped fuel Cézanne’s temperment and feelings of isolation and altered his approach to painting. In the late 1870’s Cézanne entered the phase known as `constructive,' characterized by hatched brushstrokes and the breaking down of objects into geometrical shapes which build up a sense of mass.

Vincent's passion for life arose from his intense response to the world in which he lived and to the people that he knew. His letters to his younger brother Theo convey a moving, sensitive and emotional journey taken by the artist. "Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily in order to express myself forcefully." he wrote.

Unfortunately, despite all his work and passion, his paintings didn't sell and he lived in poverty with only an allowance from Theo to sustain him. He painted daily, spending his meager allowance on paint and canvas rather than on food. Eventually this led to a mental breakdown and after cutting his ear off in a fit of rage, he entered the sanitarium at Saint-Remy. He continued to work but with his mental health worsening, he shot himself with a revolver while painting in a field. Theo was notified and rushed to his side but unfortunately Vincent's decade of creativity was over. He died with his brother at his side. Theo, who couldn't bear to be without his beloved brother, died six months later.